[Greenbuilding] Grain Bin as Water Storage

[Nick]

This is my thoughts.

I googled and found wheat – 60 lbs. per bushel at 13.5% moisture. A 
bushel is 1.25 cubic feet. Where 1.25 cubic feet of water weighs 78 lbs. 
So they are pretty close in weight.

However water as a fluid has properties that will cause it to exert more 
force on the silo sides, as grain will stand in a cone on it's own.

If I remember right the pressure at the base of a column of water is 
fluid density * acceleration of gravity * height of column. Since the 
first two are constants in this case the best thing to do is decrease 
the height of column. How about an above ground swimming pool. They 
might be available used practically for the taking apart.



Mike Forbes wrote:
> Hi all,
> firing off lots of questions lately and here's the latest.
>
> i'm trying to augment my 6000 gal of rainwater storage with another 10-20
> thousand more gallons for irrigation needs.  In searching for large capacity
> water storage I found that a corrugated grain bin with a pond liner
> inside (1500+ bushel) is the most cost effective and can be a long term good
> storage option.
>
> What I find when researching this is a couple of Canadian articles stating
> that grain is lighter than water and therefore having an engineer perform a
> structural analysis on the tank to see if it'll hold water is recommended.
> Does anyone on this list have any experience with this or have
> recommendations on large water storage that is affordable (<$2000 for 10k
> gallons).
>
>